A method for producing a region of increased doping in an n-doped semiconductor layer which is buried in a semiconductor body of a vertical power transistor and which is arranged between a p-doped body region facing the front side contact of the power transistor and an n-doped substrate facing the rear side contact of the power transistor has the following steps: a) irradiation of at least one part of the surface of the semiconductor body with protons, and b) heat treatment of the semiconductor body.
Legal claims defining the scope of protection, as filed with the USPTO.
1. A method for producing a power transistor in a semiconductor body, the power transistor including an n-doped substrate, an n-doped semiconductor layer provided on the n- doped substrate, and a p-doped region provided within the upper region of the n-doped semiconductor layer, the method comprising: a) irradiating at least a part of a front side of the semiconductor body with protons, and b) heat treating the semiconductor body at a temperature of approximately between 450 C and 550 C, wherein by the heat treatment a region of increased n-doping is formed in the n-doped semiconductor layer between the n-doped substrate and the p-doped region, which contains proton-induced donors and which includes an essentially homogenous doping profile due to a combination of the irradiated protons with defects caused by irradiation, wherein the homogenous doping profile extends from a doping maximum and in the direction of the front side of the semiconductor body, wherein the region of increased n-doping in the upper region of the n-doped semiconductor layer is immediately adjacent to the p-doped body region.
2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the n-doped semiconductor layer is generally a layer deposited by means of an epitaxial method.
3. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the irradiating further comprises irradiating the at least one part of a surface, such that the surface comprises a surface of the semiconductor body which is closes to a source contact of the semiconductor body.
4. The method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising using the region of increased n-doping as at least one part of a drift path of the power transistor.
5. The method as claimed in claim 4 , wherein the irradiating further comprises selecting irradiation parameters such that the resulting drift path is compensatable.
6. The method as claimed in claim 5 , wherein the region of increased n-doping comprises at least 30% of a vertical extent of the drift path.
7. The method as claimed in claim 6 , wherein the region of increased n-doping comprises at least 50% or 70% of the vertical extent of the drift path.
8. The method as claimed in claim 1 , further comprising, after the irradiating step, performing at least one additional proton irradiation with at least one different irradiation parameter prior to the heat-treating step.
9. The method as claimed in claim 8 , wherein performing at least one additional proton irradiation further comprises performing the at least one different proton irradiation on at least a first part of the region of increased n-doping differs from a second part of the region with increased doped irradiated in the irradiation step.
10. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the irradiation step further comprises irradiating at least one part of a surface of the semiconductor body through a screen of defined thickness arranged in front of the semiconductor body.
11. The method as claimed in claim 10 , wherein the screen is configured in such a way that a doping of an edge region of the power transistor is substantially avoided.
12. The method as claimed in claim 1 , wherein the power transistor is a power MOSFET.
13. A process for jointly fabricating power transistors with a compensation structure and further semiconductor components without compensation structure in a common n-doped semiconductor layer wherein the regions with increased n-doping, of the n-doped semiconductor layer within the power transistor with compensation structure is produced according to the method of claim 1 .
Cooperative Patent Classification codes for this invention. Click any code to explore related patents in that topic.
February 28, 2006
September 1, 2009
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